Comparing Concourses, Plus An Interceptor
Monday, August 4th, 2014
Jungle with the Concours and the Interceptor.
I had a very interesting opportunity a couple weeks back to ride a Kawasaki Concours that was not my own. What made it interesting was to see how two essentially identical bikes differ. And they do.
I was up in Eagle and went riding with my friends Willie and Jungle, on Jungle’s 2000 Concours. Mine is a 1999.
The very first thing I did when I bought my Connie was to have risers installed that raised and brought the grips back three inches. I was convinced at the time that this was essential to making the bike comfortable, rather than having an uncomfortable forward lean to the grips. Jungle’s Connie does not have risers. I noticed this immediately. And as we rode I quickly came to the conclusion that my thinking had been correct. It wasn’t long before my shoulder was aching pretty badly.
Another thing I noticed right away was that Jungle’s bike does not have highway pegs. I love my highway pegs. (And I’m glad to say that as of yesterday I now finally have highway pegs on my V-Strom.) I know that Jungle and Willie take long trips on the Concours and I just don’t understand how you can do that without highway pegs. I need to move my legs around. I guess Jungle just doesn’t have that need.
At our first stop, Jungle came over to me and asked with a bit of a grin if I had noticed anything about the bike. I knew exactly what he meant. This Concours has a growl to it that mine does not, and it has noticeably more power. His grin widened as he explained that he had advanced the timing about 5 degrees and that made all the difference. It’s a really simple thing to do, he told me, and he described the procedure. But you have to understand that Jungle is a mechanic by trade and what for him is simple is for me something I wouldn’t dream of attempting.
Anyway, although the extra power was fun, it seemed that this bike really sucked the gas down, much more quickly than mine. I’ve never been unsatisfied with the power my bike has so if the trade-off for even more power is lower gas mileage I’m happy to just stick with what I’ve got.
We rode from Eagle up to Steamboat Springs, had lunch there, and then headed back to Eagle. As I mentioned, my shoulder was really hurting me, so when, on the way back, Jungle pulled over and asked if I’d like to ride his Honda Interceptor I was interested but uncertain. This bike is a full-on sport bike with the typical crouched riding position with a serious forward lean. But I wanted to ride it and it wasn’t as if staying on the Concours was going to suddenly become comfortable.
What a difference! From the moment I got on the Interceptor and really leaned forward the pain went away. What a relief! And then, to add to that, I found that bike a joy to ride. Jungle is a go-fast kind of guy, and on the way up I had not been able to keep up with him. With him on the Concours–which he definitely rode fast–and me on the Interceptor I found that this sport bike made it really easy to go really fast. It wasn’t just that it had all this power, although it did, but that the steering and handling were so smooth and so sweet. The control was amazing. I finally really get what it is that the fans of these bikes love.
So we got back to Eagle in a hurry. Fun ride.
Biker Quote for Today
I ride a bullet. A 2-wheeled, multiple-explosion powered machine with enough moving parts to remove entire fingers. Surfaces hot enough to cook flesh. It propels me at neck-breaking, bone-snapping flesh-tearing speeds, over and through obstacles I can only see as blurs. It’s a sport that kills the careless, maims the best, and spits at the concept of mercy.
